Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Alexander von Schlippenbach was born into the Schlippenbach noble family on April 7, 1938 in Berlin, Germany. He started to play piano from the age of eight and went on to study composition at Cologne under Bernd Alois Zimmermann. While studying he started to play with Manfred Schoof.

At the age of 28 he founded the Globe Unity Orchestra. In 1988, he founded the Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, a big band that has over the years had, among others, Willem Breuker, Paul Lovens, Misha Mengelberg, Evan Parker, Schlippenbach’s wife Aki Takase and Kenny Wheeler.

Alexander has produced various recordings and worked for German radio channels. He played in a free jazz trio with saxophonist Evan Parker and drummer Paul Lovens with many players of the European free jazz community.

In 1994, he was awarded the Albert Mangelsdorff prize. He recorded 43 albums as a leader, eighteen with Globe Unity Orchestra, and another thirty-three with numerous others. Since the 1990s, pianist Alexander Von Schlippenbach has explored the work of more traditional jazz composers such as Jelly Roll Morton or Thelonious Monk, recording the latter’s complete works which were released on CD as Monk’s Casino.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Stephen Russell Race was born April 1, 1921 in Lincoln, England and learned the piano from the age of five. His education from 1932 to 1937 was at Lincoln School, where he formed his first jazz group. At sixteen, he attended the Royal Academy of Music, studying composition under Harry Farjeon and William Alwyn. After leaving the academy, he wrote occasional dance band reviews for Melody Maker and, in 1939, joined the Harry Leader dance band as pianist, succeeding Norrie Paramor.

Race joined the Royal Air Force in 1941, and formed a jazz/dance quintet. After World War II, he began a long and productive career with the BBC, where his ready wit, musicianship and broad musical knowledge made him a much sought after musical accompanist for panel games and magazine shows, such as Whirligig and Many a Slip.

Simultaneously he played in the Lew Stone and Cyril Stapleton bands, and arranged material for Ted Heath. By 1949 The Steve Race Bop Group recorded some of the first British bebop records for the Paxton label. These included four sides with Leon Calvert, Johnny Dankworth, Peter Chilver, Norman Burns, Jack Fulton. He also developed a sideline arranging player piano rolls for the Artona company.

the 1950s to the 1980s, he presented numerous music programs on radio and television. Steve was the chairman of the long-running light-hearted radio and TV panel game My Music which ran for 520 episodes from 1967 to 1994. He also presented Jazz For Moderns and Jazz 625 for the BBC in the 1960s.

As a composer, he produced a number of pieces in the jazz, classical and popular idioms. Blue Acara, Esteban Cera, Faraway Music, Nicola, Ring Ding and Pied Piper aer just a few of his well known compositions. He appeared as pianist/bandleader in the 1948 film Calling Paul Temple and with Sid Colin wrote two of the songs performed by Celia Lipton. He also wrote other scores for films. His autobiography, Musician at Large, was published in 1979, and was inducted into the Order of the British Empire (OBE). Pianist, composer, radio and television presenter Steve Race had his first heart attack in 1965 and transitioned from a second attack at his home in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, on June 22, 2009.

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The Quarantined Jazz Voyager

Not belaboring the point, with all that is going on in the world, I am continuing to remain ever vigilant relative to the pandemic which is ever present in our lives. I can only hope you are doing the same.

My latest offering for those who enjoy good music comes from Moon Beams, a 1962 album by pianist Bill Evans. It is the first trio album recorded by Evans after the death of Scott LaFaro.

Bassist Chuck Israels replaced LaFaro and Evans recorded several songs on May 17, 1962 (#5,9), May 29, 1962 (#1, 8), June 2, 1962 (#2-4, 6-7) and June 5, 1962 (#10-11) at Sound Makers Studio, New York City. The album was released in December 1962 on the Riverside label and is a collection of ballads recorded during this period.

The recording sessions were produced by Orrin Keepnews, the woman on the album cover is Nico, who would later achieve recognition as a musical artist herself, the photographer was Peter Sahula and the cover design was by Ken Deardorff.

1. Re: Person I Knew (Bill Evans) ~ 5:44
2. Polka Dots and Moonbeams (Johnny Burke, Jimmy Van Heusen) ~ 5:01
3. I Fall in Love Too Easily (Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne) ~ 2:42
4. Stairway to the Stars (Matty Malneck, Mitchell Parish) ~ 4:53
5. If You Could See Me Now (Tadd Dameron) ~ 4:29
6. It Might as Well Be Spring (Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II) ~ 6:05
7. In Love in Vain (Leo Robin, Jerome Kern) ~ 5:00
8. Very Early (Bill Evans) ~ 5:06

• Bill Evans – piano
• Chuck Israels – bass
• Paul Motian – drums

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Three Wishes

Once Nica questioned Milt Sealey about three wishes he replied with:

1. 1. “I wish I could be immortal in jazz. You know, go down with a nice name.”

   2. “I’d wish that my family ~ my wife, my child, and myself ~ would live a happy and healthy life.”

   3. “I wish that people… that I live to see the day when people will accept one another more humanly. As people, you know? Period. Well, that’s it. You know?”

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Jørgen Emborg was born in Copenhagen, Denmark on March 29, 1953 and was influenced by Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett.

He has played at international festivals since 1975, releasing his first album, Sargasso in 1979 on the Kong Pære label. In the following years he belonged to Six Winds with Marilyn Mazur, Uffe Markussen and Alex Riel and formed with Palle Mikkelborg, Bjarne Roupé, Bo Stief and Ole Theill the ensemble Alpha Centauri.

By1986 he recorded with Bjarne Rostvold and through the Nineties he performed and/or recorded with Thomas Hass and Tomas Franck. Emborg teamed up with Alex Riel again and recorded Over The Rainbow on the Storyville label, with the saxophonist Fredrik Lundin, the bassist Steve Swallow. He played in the Tolvan Big Band and the Per Carsten Quintet.

Jørgen has also composed music for children, rhythmic choir music, big band, a cappella work, ironworks and piano quizzes. He taught piano, theory and composition at the Rytmisk Conservatory of Music from 1988 to 2016.

In 1981, his LP en 20:33 with Alpha Centauri received an award from Statens Kunstfond, the State Art Foundation. He received the Ben Webster Prize with the Frontline Fusion Group as well as others.

Pianist and composer Jørgen Emborg, who ensures there is a Nordic feel to his compositions, continues to perform and compose.

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